This week Nicholas Comninellis represented INMED at the Kansas City Mayor’s United Nations Association Banquet, where we honored Gary White of Water.org. Gary is passionate about changing the distressing image above that illustrates how pervasive remains the shortage of safe drinking water in the world’s poorest communities. In Angola just 4 months ago I cared for three young men suffering from typhoid fever as a result of drinking contaminated water. Two of these men died.
A wide variety of approaches are in use to assure safe drinking water, depending upon the appropriateness of the circumstances. Such approaches often include protected wells, protected springs, sand dams, bio-sand filters, portable water treatment systems, and disinfection systems that utilize filtration, UV light, and chlorine dosing.
Few healthcare professionals are skilled in the fields of water and sanitation engineering. But we must nevertheless enthusiastically advocate and fully support development of safe drinking water systems, as Gary White is doing. And would that one day soon typhoid fever becomes one of these rare maladies mentioned only along side smallpox!